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Topic: Help ID-ing various rooms (Read 102197 times)

Although #16-17 was remodeled in 1916, I still do not think that Alexandra would have had the sickroom near to Alexei's bedroom which would have been in that corner area c1913 when Tatiana had typhus. I believe Gleb your idea of #60 is a possibility. Benckendorf had a suite in the Lyceum and would have used it as a waiting-room. It would have been an oft experienced process for palace servants to convert a room for a short timeframe and then to revert to its normal use.

None of Alexandra's furniture came from Maples. This is a myth that started when people confused the Maple Room with work an architect-decorator who worked for Maples in St. Petersburg did in the English suite of rooms in the right-hand wing. he had formarly worked for Grand Duke Boris in Tsarskoe Selo and this is how Alexandra found him.

Even though there are no records I have seen that Alexandra bought any furniture from Maples in London they did buy furniture when they traveled abroad. We know Nicholas purchased the Empire bed for their bedroom at the Winter Palace in England and that they made purchases of furniture in the Trier department store in Darmstadt.

Generally all the furiniture in their rooms eiither came from existing pieces in palaces or it was custom made by firmns like that run by Roman Meltzer's family in St. Petersburg. Kiots and other religious oriented furniture was made by various masters who secialised in this craft.

There was other store bought furniture in the rooms. The girls often received furniture as gifts from their relatives such as screens and sofas for their rooms.

I think Gregg King in his book on Alix remarked how she got much of her furniture from Maples in London ... but it's ages since I last read the book so maybe I'm wrong on this?

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'' It used to be all girls without clothes. Now it’s all clothes with no girls. Pity.''

None of Alexandra's furniture came from Maples. This is a myth that started when people confused the Maple Room with work an architect-decorator who worked for Maples in St. Petersburg did in the English suite of rooms in the right-hand wing. he had formarly worked for Grand Duke Boris in Tsarskoe Selo and this is how Alexandra found him.

Even though there are no records I have seen that Alexandra bought any furniture from Maples in London they did buy furniture when they traveled abroad. We know Nicholas purchased the Empire bed for their bedroom at the Winter Palace in England and that they made purchases of furniture in the Trier department store in Darmstadt.

Generally all the furiniture in their rooms eiither came from existing pieces in palaces or it was custom made by firmns like that run by Roman Meltzer's family in St. Petersburg. Kiots and other religious oriented furniture was made by various masters who secialised in this craft.

There was other store bought furniture in the rooms. The girls often received furniture as gifts from their relatives such as screens and sofas for their rooms.

I think Gregg King in his book on Alix remarked how she got much of her furniture from Maples in London ... but it's ages since I last read the book so maybe I'm wrong on this?

We have been in contact with the Maple Firm archives. Bob is still quite correct. The only room in the Alexander Palace which had Maple's furniture (and designed by them) was the "English Suite".

My thoughts - as the photo is part of the Hessen Staatsarchiv, the room was probably in Bialowieza when GD Ernst visited Poland c1903. Skierniewice’s décor was classical from period of GD Konstantin Pavlovich 1820s and Spala had a simpler hunting lodge interior.

The wainscoting is similar to Nicholas’ rooms in Bialowieza when Tsarevich. Another clue to the time frame is the painting of Alexandra. Nicholas loved it and most likely had it replicated to hang in Bialowieza similar to Franz Kruger’s paintings of AI and NI that were distributed to various palaces, etc. The furniture style feels “hunting lodge”.

It would be fantastic to see the photo albums belonging to the Imperial Family for the year 1903.

Interesting to have differing opinions on the photo I posted. Thanks for your input, FA and Joanna. I agree that the furniture seems more fitted to a hunting lodge than the Catherine Palace, at least the furniture I've seen from the palace.

According to the database of the State Archive in Darmstadt, the photo shows a room at the Garde-Kavallerie Klub in Berlin.(The 2nd Guards Dragoons of the 3rd Guards Cavalry Brigade of the German Empire was the regiment of Empress Alexandra of Russia.)

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"The Correspondence of the Empress Alexandra of Russia with Ernst Ludwig and Eleonore, Grand Duke and Duchess of Hesse. 1878-1916" - http://www.bod.de/index.php?id=296&objk_"Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig and Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine in Italy - 1893"

My best guess is the Maple room. Or the Palisander room. The upholstery looks most like the Maple room to me, but I can't match that sofa with known furniture in either room. There are a number of photos of Alexandra posing in the Maple room in that dress.